Delta Is Real. The Vaccines Still Work.

The delta variant has no doubt changed things in the battle against COVID-19. For one, the highly contagious form of the novel coronavirus has led to officials recommending that universal face masks be worn in public indoor spaces in parts of the country experiencing substantial or high spread of the virus.

But the variant has also been the subject of repeated distortions — including viral claims questioning its existence. Needless to say, delta is real.

The good news is that the COVID-19 vaccines still provide quite strong protection against the variant, contrary to what one doctor recently claimed on Fox News.

Science Editor Jessica McDonald took a close look at the multiple studies, both from the real world and labs, that show the FDA-authorized vaccines are still highly effective against delta — especially when it comes to serious illness and death — even if their overall potency is a bit reduced.

“You’re much, much better off being vaccinated than not,” Frederic Bushman, co-director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Research on Coronaviruses and Other Emerging Pathogens, told us. “The delta variant may reduce the effectiveness [of the vaccines] a little, but still they’re so effective that you get a lot of benefit.”

Read the full story, "Vaccines Remain Largely Effective Against Delta Variant, Counter to Claims From Fox News Guest."

Reader: I am writing to inform you that one of your fact checkers, Saranac Hale Spencer, had written a story attempting to debunk the story "Nuremberg Code Addresses Experimentation, Not Vaccines" which was posted on June 8, 2020.  The claim is that Nuremberg Code is regarding experimentation, not vaccines, which is true. However Spencer misled the public and failed to identify COVID vaccines is being classified as experimental, not yet approved by the FDA.  So in fact, the mandatory vaccination of people would be a violation of the Nuremberg Code.

FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely: The story you are referring to was written more than a year ago and prior to Food and Drug Administration authorization of COVID-19 vaccines. We have since added an update at the end of that story to clarify that the FDA gave emergency use authorization to three COVID-19 vaccines — not full licensure. (We explain the difference here.) But that does not change the fact that the Nuremberg Code was written in response to Nazi experiments that were done on concentration camp prisoners without their consent. Those Nazi experiments are not analogous at all to authorized, lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines. 

In the case of the FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccines, randomized controlled trials were conducted involving tens of thousands of people who volunteered to participate in the trials. The results were reviewed by multiple groups of experts, revealed no serious safety issues and showed that the benefits outweigh the risks. After granting emergency use authorization for three vaccines in the U.S., the FDA says it now “requires that vaccine recipients or their caregivers are provided with certain vaccine-specific EUA information to help make an informed decision about vaccination. This is accomplished by providing an EUA Fact Sheet for Recipients and Caregivers.” The fact sheets for each vaccine can be found on the CDC’s website.

It is a disservice to the victims of Nazi experiments to compare the two. You have a choice; they didn’t.

Wrapping Up

Here's what else we've got for you this week:

• "Senators Claim Infrastructure Bill Is ‘Paid For’; Experts Disagree": Both Democratic and Republican senators who negotiated a bipartisan infrastructure bill have claimed the legislation is “paid for.” But a budget watchdog group says the bill only pays for about half of the $548 billion in new spending.
   
• "Sequencing Used to Identify Delta, Other Coronavirus Variants": Researchers use genomic sequencing — not the clinical tests used to diagnose patients with COVID-19 — to identify and track specific variants of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, including the highly contagious delta variant. But viral posts try to deny the existence of the variant by misleadingly claiming there is "no ‘Delta Variant’ test."
   
• "Memes Misidentify D.C. Police Officer as Jan. 6 Protester": Using side-by-side photos of two men who bear some resemblance to each other, social media posts are spreading the false claim that a Washington, D.C., police officer who responded to the Capitol breach on Jan. 6 was really part of the rioting crowd. The photos actually show two different people.
   
• "COVID-19 Surges Among Unvaccinated in Florida, Contrary to Baseless Claims": Florida health officials have reported a 60% rise in COVID-19 cases, and hospitals are reporting that 95% of COVID-19 patients are not fully vaccinated. But a Facebook post makes the baseless claims that Florida’s numbers are not going up, and that all COVID-19 patients recently admitted to a Palm Beach County hospital had been vaccinated. 
   
• "The Facts on Capitol Police’s Tampa Office": U.S. Capitol Police recently announced that it's adding field offices in Tampa and San Francisco to investigate threats against members of Congress. Some Republicans have since criticized the move as federal overreach or a partisan power play to target Jan. 6 Capitol protesters. We explained their claims, and why and how USCP says it will branch out.
   
• "Viral Claim Gets Biden’s COVID-19 Travel and Immigration Policies Wrong": The Biden administration hasn’t introduced COVID-19 travel restrictions on Americans going to Mexico since the delta variant became dominant in the U.S., and it is enforcing immigration laws at the border. But a meme falsely claiming the opposite is circulating online.

• "Fauci y Paul, segunda ronda": En una audiencia del 20 de julio en el Senado, el senador republicano Rand Paul y el Dr. Anthony Fauci, director del Instituto Nacional de Alergias y Enfermedades Infecciosas, tuvieron una vez más un intercambio tenso sobre si Estados Unidos financió una investigación de ganancia de función en China en el que cada hombre acusó al otro de “mentir”.
   
• "Meme difunde falacia sobre transferencia de la vacuna al comer carne": Ni el ganado vacuno ni el aviar reciben vacunas contra el COVID-19. Pero un meme difunde la falacia de que quienes ingieran la carne de animales vacunados resultarán “VACUNADOS” por consumir la carne. Esto simplemente no es posible, según inmunólogos.
   
• "Empresario publica mensajes en redes distorsionando hechos sobre la definición de pandemia": Mensajes publicados por un empresario en Instagram y Facebook afirman erróneamente que el gobierno de los Estados Unidos “cambió la definición de pandemia” en 2004, insinuando que el COVID-19 no habría calificado en la definición anterior. No hay evidencia para esas declaraciones y el COVID-19 es definitivamente una pandemia.
   
• "Guía para la actualización de las recomendaciones de uso de mascarilla de los CDC": Citando nueva información sobre la variante delta, los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades (CDC, por sus siglas en inglés) recomendó que las personas completamente vacunadas usen mascarillas en entornos cerrados en ciertas áreas del país.
   
• "El COVID-19 aumenta entre los no vacunados en Florida, contrario a afirmaciones infundadas": Funcionarios de salud de Florida han comunicado que los casos de COVID-19 han aumentado en un 60%, y según los hospitales el 95% de los pacientes de COVID-19 no están completamente vacunados. Pero una publicación en Facebook afirma infundadamente que las cifras de Florida no están aumentando y que todos los pacientes de COVID-19 ingresados recientemente en un hospital del condado de Palm Beach estaban vacunados.
   
• "Vacunas siguen siendo efectivas contra la variante delta, contrario a comentarios de invitado a Fox News": Numerosos estudios demuestran que las vacunas contra el COVID-19 autorizadas por la Administración de Alimentos y Medicamentos (FDA, por sus siglas en inglés) continúan siendo efectivas contra la variante delta del coronavirus, incluso si la potencia de las vacunas se reduce de algún modo. Pero un invitado a Fox News afirmó la falsedad de que la variante delta “realmente no responde en absoluto, ni hay protección en lo absoluto con las vacunas” y “no hay razón clínica para ir a vacunarse”.
   
• "Mensajes virales distorsionan anuncio de los CDC sobre prueba PCR de COVID-19": Los científicos consideran la prueba de reacción en cadena de polimerasa, conocida como PCR por sus siglas en inglés, como una herramienta muy confiable para diagnosticar COVID-19. Pero mensajes en las redes sociales están distorsionando un anuncio reciente de los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades (CDC, por sus siglas en inglés) sobre la suspensión eventual de su propia prueba, afirmando la falsedad de que el gobierno ha admitido que las pruebas PCR no son confiables.